Inspired by the Mac-n-Cheese Off, we’re eating an earthy ode to mac-n-cheese. This dish is made with a bechamel based sauce that’s filled with herb goat cheese, sharp cheddar, parmigiano reggiano, sauteed shitake and crimini mushrooms deglazed with sherry vinegar, truffle oil, fresh rosemary, thyme, and sage. Since the actual macaroni and cheese is extremely rich, we went with a crispy top-layer made from panko and parmigiano reggiano rather than the standard ooey gooey cheesey top layer.

this is not from a box

T: I gotta say, Amanda, this mac and cheese was out of this world. I believe it came from another planet. it was outrageously tasty.A: why thank ya, mister T! mac and cheese happens to be one of those foods that i find totally decadent and just absolutely love (when it’s made well).T: you know, i grew up eating boxed mac and cheese like 95% of the time. i never had much real mac and cheese. And when I did, it was not creamy at all. Then along came mandy. Mandy, mandy.A: hehehe honestly, i grew up with a similar mac-n-cheese experience. On occasion my dad would make mac-n-cheese and throw in some tomatoes and some good cheddar, but it was always dry and kind of gritty. a common outcome when you don’t use the bechamel based cheese sauce and just try to toss the macaroni with some cheese and bake it.T: yeah that’s the way I would have thought to do it… make some box mac & cheese and throw some cheddar on there. or…. boil some macaroni and then just put cheddar on it. Either way I’d be sucking.A: i’m sure if you did any research before you made the macaroni and cheese you wouldn’t just do that. there are tons of recipes out there.T:if I did any research. Chances are if I were doing this it would be 2 in the morning I and would have had a few ice-cold Natural Light beers and I wouldn’t be sensible enough to “do research”.A: heard that! fortunately you have me. and i tend to make macaroni and cheese out of what ever happens to be left over. it just seems to go with everything. this was an unusual mac and cheese for me because nothing was left-over. it was all made just for this meal. T: i want more of this mac and cheese.A: i actually wasn’t sure if you would like this one as much as previous ones, since you still aren’t mushrooms’ biggest fan…and my inspiration for this one was the earthiness found in mushrooms (and truffle oil).T: I don’t know, I like mushrooms in the right scenario… just don’t want to sit around and eat them raw or something. But I was a massive fan of this mac and cheese. Like, OMG, Mandy. That was the best mac and cheese I’ve had. I give it a 4.9/5. You’ve got mac and cheese nailed.A: damn, yo! that’s a crazy high score! i was a huge fan of the dish too. maybe not a 4.9/5 fan, but still…. I give this one a 4.75/5, which happens to be a pretty damn high rating.T: if I’m not mistaken that’s the highest score we’ve ever given anything on this blog.A: hmmm… i feel like i remember 1 other meal that might have scored higher, but i can’t think of what it was exactly.T: i don’t remember either. But I’m sure it had plenty of cheese in it. Cheese helps anything get a higher score. Cheeeeese. Back to the Mac n Cheese…A: yeah, so there is only one thing i would do to this dish if i could afford it – use real truffle and not truffle oil! but… seeing as how i’m currently in search of new employment!!!! that can’t really happen.T: how much is a truffle, anyway? Or I guess I should say… how much is the amount of truffle that you would need for this dish?A: well, since you can’t really buy just part of a truffle, i would need to purchase a whole one.T: ok google-master mandy, what’s that going to run us?A: well, from mirepoix usa you can get an eighth of a pound for $225 usd. on boots in the oven, they went to a at a truffle festival in italy and they had smaller ones there for about â‚¬20 each. and they don’t particularly weigh a lot. i hate money! i wish i could just barter for products in my time off. i’m gonna make a sign and go stand in front of a specialty store that says “Will Work For Truffles… (and/or an aussie rack of lamb)”T: Dude that is a great idea! You should totally do that! It might just pan out! 😀A: hehehe you never know. it might just be outrageous enough… T: maybe you could dress up as a truffle… is that going too far?A: uh… maybe so 😉 and where on earth would we find a truffle costume!T: we would construct it out of paper mache of course! A: or maybe i could just wear a chef’s coat or something…T: ok, yeah… that’s more like it. so where in the San Diego area can we do this?A: i dunno. i’ve not looked into who carries truffles around these parts. i don’t imagine it would be too terribly hard to find out though. you never know guys. maybe we’ll really do this.T: quizas, quizas, quizas.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place a large pot of water over high heat and cover. Place a large saute pan with 2 tbsp oil or lard over medium heat. Once the oil is hot, add the mushrooms to the pan and saute for 7-10 minutes or until the mushrooms are fully cooked and slightly caramelized. Toss or stir occasionally. Season with a pinch of kosher salt and black pepper then deglaze the pan with sherry vinegar. Allow all of the vinegar to cook out, then remove the mushrooms from the pan and set aside.

Begin the cheese sauce. Add 3 tbsp butter to a medium-sized sauce pan and place the pan on the stove over medium heat. Once all the butter is melted and hot, whisk in 3 tbsp flour. Cook the flour, whisking, for about 30 seconds , just long enough to get rid of the raw flour taste, but not long enough for the flour to start caramelizing. Add the thyme, rosemary, sage, and red pepper flakes. Continue stirring and allow the herbs to saute for about another 30 secpnds. Slowly pour in the milk while whisking continuously, so the roux and milk incorporate smoothly and there are no lumps. Allow the bechamel to come to a simmer (it won't gain it's full thickness until it does), stirring occassionally.

While waiting for the sauce to come to a simmer start the pasta. Liberally salt the pot of boiling water, almost to the point it tastes like sea water. This may take a few handfuls of salt . Add the pasta to the water and cook the pasta for a minute or two less than the suggested time on the box.

Once the bechamel has reached a simmer, stir in the chevre, cheddar, 2oz of parmigiano, and truffle oil until all the cheese has melted. Turn off the heat and and taste the sauce for seasoning levels. Season with salt and pepper as necessary. In small mixing bowl, mix together the panko and remaining 2oz of parmigiano reggiano.

Strain the pasta immediately once finished cooking. In a mixing bowl, toss the pasta, cheese sauce, and mushrooms together. Pour the macaroni and cheese into a deep glass or ceramic loaf pan and sprinkle the panko/parmigiano mixture evenly across the top. Bake the mac-n-cheese in the upper part of the oven for about 15 to 20 minutes or until the topping is golden and the cheese sauce is bubbly. Serve hot. Enjoy!

*if you're lucky enough to have a real truffle, feel free to substitute shaved truffle for the truffle oil!

77 comments so far:

Wow Tyler I am totally drooling over that photo! Amanda…anxiously awaiting the recipe! I love baked mac n cheese! I usually don’t mess with it too much but my basic recipe includes just a touch of fresh jalapeno. Sometimes I get crazy and add a chipotle chili 😉 Actually we made some with leftover ham from Christmas and threw in some peas. That was good. But somehow I think it just doesn’t compare to this dish that has come so close to that elusive five star rating!

Thanks Nicole! mac and cheese really is the best way to deal with left overs, imho. actually, some of my favorite mac&cheese is with chipotle! i seriously think, if it wasn’t SO bad for you, i would make takes on m&c at least once a week… hmm, maybe then i would be sick of it, but in my mind it sounds like a great idea!

Denise, I hope the recipe works out well for you! let me know how it goes

Heather…!!! you called me?!?! i’ll admit it. i’ve not checked my voice mail messages since pre-xmas. i suck. it rocks to hear the dip turned out well though! what was the texture issue? you’re not feeling well? okay, this is turning into an email. i’m gonna email you i swear! i need to know sooo much!

That looks lovely. To date, my favorite version is the lobster mac and cheese prepared by Chef Velie at Juniper, a restaurant in Ridge Spring, South Carolina. More than a little off the beaten path, but well worth the journey.

Oh my god, now that I’ve read the recipe, I truly understand why it got such a high rating! Now I know what to do with the truffle oil I bought in Florence 😉 I love the detail of your recipes Amanda! Especially the importance you placed on salting the water! That’s something I’ve learned from living here…you have to REALLy salt the pasta water! It makes all the difference in the world!

[…] 7th, 2007 · No Comments If you’ve noticed the long (getting longer every day) list of food blogs I have listed overon my sidebar, then you must understand that I spend quite a bit of time browsing through tons of wonderful recipes on a daily basis. I’ve already run across more great recipes than I could cook in this lifetime. I don’t even have enough time to cook everything that comes from my own head much less try to recreate these other masterpieces! But every once in a while, one of these recipes grabs me and won’t let go! It’s like when you’ve read a wonderful book, seen a film, or heard a piece of music that left you breathless and you have to tell everyone you meet because you want that feeling to spread throughout the world. Ok, now I’m exaggerating a bit (you’re starting to wonder if this post is really about mac and cheese, aren’t you?). But, after reading about Amanda’s Orgasmic Mac ‘n’ Cheese over at What We’re Eating, I can’t stop thinking about it and I had to share it with you. Enjoy! […]

delurking to admit to my stalking of this recipe. the link for the site that sells truffles has taken up permanent residence in my browser. i’ll definately work for truffles too. SO expensive i cant believe it. i have to get my hands on some oil one of these days. this m&c is just opulent i can imagine how deicious it is!

deb, mmmm…. lobster mac-n-cheese! i’ve only had it from one place – actually tyler ordered it and i just snuck bites! from a restaurant called terra in san diego. in concept it sounds awesome, but they managed to WAY over salt it, imho it’s ashame i can’t just jet-set over to south carolina and give Juniper’s a try!

Why thank you, rachel! it really was kind of hard to make it look nice… we definately took lots of photos from all kinds of angles!

thanks, lannae! your’s actually sounds really good… i just love blue cheese anyway it comes… it’s just the blue pasta that makes it looks a bit scary! good for school spirit, maybe not so good for food porn 😉

aw, michelle, you don’t have to camp out front! we’ll dry by your apartment and chuck some out the car window as we drive by. that way you don’t even need to travel to get some 😛 j/k! but seriously, went the hell are we doing lunch? next weekend? (and i agree, sometimes the blue box is what i’m looking for – off the record of course!)

Thanks Stacie! your mac&cheese is definately oooey, gooey food pornalicious too. i dig the creaminess of the dish….damn all this mac and cheese! i can’t calorically afford to keep looking at photo after decadent photo!

awesome, lea! i’m sure it will turn out great. you tend to pull off most recipes very well! since i put in my two weeks notice at my current job (and have no other job lined up), tyler and i are supposed to be on a budget right now too…. but… uh… that’s not really been working out for us too well 😛

no joke, alice! or just eat like, two bites of it. that problem with that is, that it just tastes so damn good it’s hard to just eat two bites!

ooooh! truffle oil from florence! i don’t know why, but that just sounds like it would be soooo much better than my truffle oil from.. uh… whole foods! 😛 thanks soooo much for the write up, too! coming from you it definately means a lot!

thanks becky! i happen to have been drooling over your roasted duck for a couple weeks now! i think i’m actually going to make a roasted chicken in a couple days just because of it…(wish i could afford the duck)

thanks deb! it camera really does all the work 😉 we are really very lucky to have a digital slr with a macro lens!

veron, thanks! i have to admit, it was your absolutely gorgeous kitchen that made us first realize there was a kitchen event going on. i’ll admit it… your kitchen makes me positively weak in the knees!

oh sarah! i don’t think you’re looks like a pathetic attempt at all! i think it looks quite tasty… just more traditional. and let me tell you, there isn’t a damn thing wrong with traditional mac&cheese in my book!

aria, perhaps we can find a little gourmet shop in between san diego and santa monica so we can join forces and both go beg the shop for work… surely they would love two fabulous women willing to work for truffles, no? who could deny us if we combined our wiles 😛

So this is the dish that makes the email go ’round, eh? Sounds darn tootin’ de-lish, sis! Might even have to whip some up myself. I’ve got two bottles of white truffle oil wasting away in the cabinet and this seems a perfect use. Can’t wait to dig in…wanna make me some when you come to visit?
Ciao!

maegan, darn tootin’? geez! you’re going to give off the impression we were raised in BFE and we’re some kind of hillbillies! 😉 you could always just ship me one of those bottles of white truffle oil. i can promise you it wouldn’t go to waste!

[…] This recipe is influenced, of course, by others: The one from The Joy of Cooking (1997 edition), Sarah Gim’s liveblog “Macaroni & Cheese from Scratch,” Married …with dinner’s “Smackdown and cheese” (Hi Anita!), and What we’re eating’s “Orgasmic Mac’n’Cheese.” Broccoli or leafy veggies complement this dish quite well. […]

[…] This recipe was inspired by our friends at whatwereeating.com.Â We had to make some changes, however, because we couldn’t find all of the ingredients in the original recipe.Â So, here is our version which turned out absolutely wonderful and easy to make!Â The kids had seconds and thirds!Â We served ours with freshly steamed green beans. […]

Hi all and thanks for the recipe. I an new to the kitchen and cooking and when I was asked to bring Mac n Cheese to a house-warming party this Saturday, someone smirked and said to expect Stouffer’s! The nerve! So inspired by Top Chef and the picture above, I’m going to give it a shot. I’ll let you know how it turns out. Thanks again!

Terrific! My changes were not mixing the cheese with the panko and using regular chevre instead of herbed. This was a hit at the BBQ. It was a hit since I had none left over and even mushroom haters were eating it. I think I can do different variations of the recipe by using different brands of the three cheese listed and something other than supermarket brand pasta.

Just wanted to share with fellow food enthusiasts this really cool, really easy-to-use tool that’s a fun way to share online recipes. Instead of sending someone a bunch of links to your favorite recipes, you can instead create an audio tour of online recipes. I just did a test about Mac N Cheese recipes, including this site:

[…] I’m back in the library (I’ve decided I’m a really a citizen of the libraries of New York City), but we had a nice weekend, watching Lars and the Real Girl, cooking tasty mac and cheese with wild mushrooms and TRUFFLE oil (so fancy!) and catching up with an old, dear friend in town from Germany. […]

That’s awesome Phyltyer! i love to hear peoples reviews… and there is NO way a 1/2# of bacon could make anything bad.

rae, thank you so much for coming back and leaving us a comment! you know, baby bella’s are just another name for criminis! so you only really substituted the vinegar which probably didn’t change the flavors too much! again, i’m so glad you enjoyed it!

I made this recipe for Thanksgiving dinner. I used about 1/3 of a smallish black truffle in lieu of truffle oil. While it was delicious (it was! very!) it wasn’t nearly so gooey as the pictures look. I wonder what happened? The only thing I can think is, I was baking it alongside a roast pork loin, so it was in the oven a little longer than recommended, at 325. Maybe that did it? Still – delicious. So mushroomy! *Drool*

the word “orgasmic” was what sold me on the recipe. i had to try it for thanksgiving this year, and i have to say…all the old ladies and gentlemen at the table came alive after taking their first bites, haha. everyone claimed it was the best dish of the night. thanks amanda!

This looks AMAZING! I am thinking of making it for my holiday party. Do you think I can make any of it ahead of time? Could I make the whole thing the night before, refrigerate, and then throw in the oven on the night of? I am all about ease on the day-of

I think so, Kate. I would just toss the hot pasta with a little oil as soon as you drain it so it doesn’t stick together then let it cool before you add it to the cheese sauce. If you add it to the cheese sauce when it’s still hot it’s going to absorb all the liquid then when you go to bake it the next day it’s going to dry out even more. Anyway, cooling pasta before adding it to the sauce should keep it nice and creamy.

So, I’ve made this dish about 5 times now and it’s bookmarked on my phone so I can easily pick up the ingredients. It may be partially responsible for my current relationship (my girlfriend agrees) and has impressed numerous others. So, thank you! This is my favorite recipe.

In playing around with smoked flavours recently, we found one addition that we think really adds to it: ?¼tsp of smoked salt in place of the regular salt. The smoky flavour compliments the earthyness of the mushrooms, bringing the cheesey bits and the mushroomy bits closer together (in our opinion).

Oh my god, that looks so creamy and crunchy and delicious. Deglazing with sherry is really smart– I bet that adds some wonderful flavor. I love the interview too, great!

I have to say though– most truffle oil is artificial!! They often put little bits of truffle but use a chemical for the flavor. You can confirm it on Wiki! I say go with truffle salt. (Be sure to add it after all the cooking, which might be a little difficult with mac and cheese, so for this recipe I would add it to the cheese sauce when you’re done cooking it)

Awesome! I was just surfing around looking for inspiration for an exotic mushroom contest I’ve entered and I stumbled across this recipe. I love how you put a spin on mac and cheese but didn’t stop there. 😀

The herbs, the different cheese, the truffle oil and then you put panko on top?! You rock.

I’ll probably end up doing a homemade pizza for my contest but I’m bookmarking this page for later.

i’ve become semi obsessed with mac ‘n cheese recipes the past few years and have tried to get away from the ordinary elbow mac for these recipes, ive tried this recipe using campenelle pasta. certain pasta shapes lend themselves to certain sauces and certainly lend a nicer presentation as a finished product. ive also reduced the cooking time of the pasta to the point of partially uncooked,( well short of al dente`), as the pasta will continue cooking while being baked.

I stumbled upon this recipe while looking for something to bring to my gourmet dinner club’s potluck a couple of weeks ago. I have made it twice more since then, and keep getting asked to make it more. It’s a new fave among friends and family! Thank you for such a wonderful twist on an old recipe–it’s so divine!

day old mac and cheese is DEFINITELY not nearly as good as when it’s freshly made. I’d say you’re gonna lose about 40% of the awesomeness making this the day before. The noodles will absorb all the cheese sauce and once the sauce coagulates it will melt differently reheated and change the texture. it’ll still be good, but it won’t be orgasmic!